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Peru Days 4, 5 and 6 - Machu Picchu and Lima
Anyhow, we finished the "short Inca trail" (aka short hike from train) to the Sun Gate. And just let me say...WORTH IT!
At the Sun Gate. Note that Machu Picchu is technically behind me.
From the Sun Gate, you can see the walking route down and the much longer bus route down. It was...kind of a scary ride.
There were a lot of cool birds in the area, including this gorgeous green humming bird.
More Machu Picchu from above with the Winay Wayna orchid in the foreground.
We walked for a bit then got to spend the evening in Machu Picchu. I got a picture in front of the ruins only looking mostly disheveled.
It's hat hair!
I also stuck around to get some other lovely pictures, although I can't remember which were from that evening vs. the next morning. (We got up quite early to be at Machu Picchu the next morning, got a tour, all that. So could be either/or. The only way I can tell is that I'm in hiking clothes on the Inca Trail day, a gray dress on the Machu Picchu day.)
Yeah...it really does look like that.
The clouds kept blowing around, which meant sometimes everything was covered, sometimes entirely bare, sometimes artistically half and half.
It's really pretty!
Much beauty, wow!
I looked fashionable second day! (Also note that this dress is as comfy as PJs, so awesome!)
Brother and sister in law minutes later after the fog rolled in.
We got a tour around the main places - the graineries, the temples (to Pachamama, the Sun God, the Condor God, the Observatory, the Rainbow God). I mostly forget a lot of it. Probably the coolest part is that, at sunrise on the solstice, the sun goes straight from the Sun Gate to the Temple of the Sun. That's some fancy engineering!
But much of the rest was...less fancy. Although there was some Imperial Inca stone work, there wasn't nearly as much as in Cusco. I mean, I get it. Cusco was the capital. This is...a backwards town that just happened to survive. But it felt maybe a bit underwhelming? IDK. I think I liked some of the other sites better, but I'm also not a huge fan of massively touristy places, so that probably was part of it, too.
Anyway, me by the observatory.
Observatory sans me.
The sun temple.
Rather like in Winay Wayna, there were a lot of llamas left out to be cute for tourists. They were really placid. Like, people were petting them. People were petting their *babies*. A few even started mating in front of us, because, y'know, llamas...
Baby llama.
Llamas making baby llamas. Note that the female kind of started wandering off in the middle, with the male um...not breaking off. It was hilarious. Like, everyone was laughing at them and yet THEY JUST KEPT GOING. Now that's dedication.
Another baby llama. This one let me pet it. I'm surprised its mother didn't care, but oh well. It was...woolly. Like a sheep. So..not that exciting.
Anyhow, we spent our time up until nearly 11 getting our tour, then raced off to climb Huayna Picchu (our time was from 10-11 am, we got in with 5 minutes to spare!) It was 840 ft. straight up via stone stairs. I didn't find it too hard (I made it to the terraces in 25 minutes), although there was a tiny part after the terraces that involved climbing up a super sheer stair case with a sheer drop off on the other side that freaked me out. (As well as edging over a chasm...and yes, yes, I know I was fine, but...geek! Sheer drop offs!) But others complain quite a bit about how hard it is.
Regardless, the views from the top were stupendous. I definitely recommend!
The stairs up. You see? Not bad!
At the peak! And yes, I look sweaty and gross and don't care. I made it!
At the peakness of the peak!
I raced my family there and kind of waited for a bit at the terraces, then climbed up a bit farther and waited...then farther...then went through the scary part and was like, "I must get down to end this nightmare".
At the very top, though, I had a Spanish girl take my photo. She...terrified me. There were all these slippery rocks with sheer drop offs on several sides and she was *hopping* about on them, and *stepping back without looking* while she got my photo. I was sure I was going to inadvertently have killed her and had her life on my conscious forever. Luckily, like the mountain goat she was, she made it down just fine.
I also made it down and waited for family by the terraces. They were there...eventually. (They were actually the second to last out. Oh well...)
We then hung out in Aguas Calientes for a bit (you have to leave Machu Picchu by noon...although we were out more like 1:30...if you get the morning pass), then got on our train to Ollantaytambo. From there we got on a van to make it back to Cusco.
Probably the highlight of that ride was stepping out on a dark plateau to see the southern hemisphere. The southern milky way seems to have a lot of gaps (not just the Coal Shoot, but others. It's weird) We also saw the Southern Cross by the horizon, a huge Mars, and a spectacular Scorpio. So beautiful yet so odd...it's as astounding as the stars on the Northern hemisphere just...different.
I also saw four shooting stars, including one that was like a firework. So that was cool!
We made it back then woke up early to fly back to Lima. I promptly went to the Museo de Arceologico y Historia and wandered around for a bit. It's...interesting. It does a great job of explaining all the different pre-Hispanic cultures in the first bit then the history of Peru after in the second, but it's mostly in Spanish. It would also be very hard to get to without speaking Spanish, so unsure if it's a must see, although I really liked it. It was also cheap. I spent 20 soles (8 USD?) on the uber over, then 10 soles for admission (3 USD) then got a ride back for free thanks to a kindly native who was headed in my direction anyway.
Anyway, went out to a quick dinner (one brother and father weren't feeling great), then got up at 3 am (1 am west coast time) to fly back.
The only real hurdle (other than 21 hour transit time) was being stopped in Mexico city by a border agent. It appeared that my baggage was held up for questioning. After much examining of my passport and questions about my travel history (my repeated trips to China and my tourist stamp to Machu Picchu were much questioned), every bag of the salt from Moras was examined. Can't trust that salt, I guess...except that it was salt, so I was allowed to go free.
I made it home tired, but having seen some amazing things!
At the Sun Gate. Note that Machu Picchu is technically behind me.
From the Sun Gate, you can see the walking route down and the much longer bus route down. It was...kind of a scary ride.
There were a lot of cool birds in the area, including this gorgeous green humming bird.
More Machu Picchu from above with the Winay Wayna orchid in the foreground.
We walked for a bit then got to spend the evening in Machu Picchu. I got a picture in front of the ruins only looking mostly disheveled.
It's hat hair!
I also stuck around to get some other lovely pictures, although I can't remember which were from that evening vs. the next morning. (We got up quite early to be at Machu Picchu the next morning, got a tour, all that. So could be either/or. The only way I can tell is that I'm in hiking clothes on the Inca Trail day, a gray dress on the Machu Picchu day.)
Yeah...it really does look like that.
The clouds kept blowing around, which meant sometimes everything was covered, sometimes entirely bare, sometimes artistically half and half.
It's really pretty!
Much beauty, wow!
I looked fashionable second day! (Also note that this dress is as comfy as PJs, so awesome!)
Brother and sister in law minutes later after the fog rolled in.
We got a tour around the main places - the graineries, the temples (to Pachamama, the Sun God, the Condor God, the Observatory, the Rainbow God). I mostly forget a lot of it. Probably the coolest part is that, at sunrise on the solstice, the sun goes straight from the Sun Gate to the Temple of the Sun. That's some fancy engineering!
But much of the rest was...less fancy. Although there was some Imperial Inca stone work, there wasn't nearly as much as in Cusco. I mean, I get it. Cusco was the capital. This is...a backwards town that just happened to survive. But it felt maybe a bit underwhelming? IDK. I think I liked some of the other sites better, but I'm also not a huge fan of massively touristy places, so that probably was part of it, too.
Anyway, me by the observatory.
Observatory sans me.
The sun temple.
Rather like in Winay Wayna, there were a lot of llamas left out to be cute for tourists. They were really placid. Like, people were petting them. People were petting their *babies*. A few even started mating in front of us, because, y'know, llamas...
Baby llama.
Llamas making baby llamas. Note that the female kind of started wandering off in the middle, with the male um...not breaking off. It was hilarious. Like, everyone was laughing at them and yet THEY JUST KEPT GOING. Now that's dedication.
Another baby llama. This one let me pet it. I'm surprised its mother didn't care, but oh well. It was...woolly. Like a sheep. So..not that exciting.
Anyhow, we spent our time up until nearly 11 getting our tour, then raced off to climb Huayna Picchu (our time was from 10-11 am, we got in with 5 minutes to spare!) It was 840 ft. straight up via stone stairs. I didn't find it too hard (I made it to the terraces in 25 minutes), although there was a tiny part after the terraces that involved climbing up a super sheer stair case with a sheer drop off on the other side that freaked me out. (As well as edging over a chasm...and yes, yes, I know I was fine, but...geek! Sheer drop offs!) But others complain quite a bit about how hard it is.
Regardless, the views from the top were stupendous. I definitely recommend!
The stairs up. You see? Not bad!
At the peak! And yes, I look sweaty and gross and don't care. I made it!
At the peakness of the peak!
I raced my family there and kind of waited for a bit at the terraces, then climbed up a bit farther and waited...then farther...then went through the scary part and was like, "I must get down to end this nightmare".
At the very top, though, I had a Spanish girl take my photo. She...terrified me. There were all these slippery rocks with sheer drop offs on several sides and she was *hopping* about on them, and *stepping back without looking* while she got my photo. I was sure I was going to inadvertently have killed her and had her life on my conscious forever. Luckily, like the mountain goat she was, she made it down just fine.
I also made it down and waited for family by the terraces. They were there...eventually. (They were actually the second to last out. Oh well...)
We then hung out in Aguas Calientes for a bit (you have to leave Machu Picchu by noon...although we were out more like 1:30...if you get the morning pass), then got on our train to Ollantaytambo. From there we got on a van to make it back to Cusco.
Probably the highlight of that ride was stepping out on a dark plateau to see the southern hemisphere. The southern milky way seems to have a lot of gaps (not just the Coal Shoot, but others. It's weird) We also saw the Southern Cross by the horizon, a huge Mars, and a spectacular Scorpio. So beautiful yet so odd...it's as astounding as the stars on the Northern hemisphere just...different.
I also saw four shooting stars, including one that was like a firework. So that was cool!
We made it back then woke up early to fly back to Lima. I promptly went to the Museo de Arceologico y Historia and wandered around for a bit. It's...interesting. It does a great job of explaining all the different pre-Hispanic cultures in the first bit then the history of Peru after in the second, but it's mostly in Spanish. It would also be very hard to get to without speaking Spanish, so unsure if it's a must see, although I really liked it. It was also cheap. I spent 20 soles (8 USD?) on the uber over, then 10 soles for admission (3 USD) then got a ride back for free thanks to a kindly native who was headed in my direction anyway.
Anyway, went out to a quick dinner (one brother and father weren't feeling great), then got up at 3 am (1 am west coast time) to fly back.
The only real hurdle (other than 21 hour transit time) was being stopped in Mexico city by a border agent. It appeared that my baggage was held up for questioning. After much examining of my passport and questions about my travel history (my repeated trips to China and my tourist stamp to Machu Picchu were much questioned), every bag of the salt from Moras was examined. Can't trust that salt, I guess...except that it was salt, so I was allowed to go free.
I made it home tired, but having seen some amazing things!